Alissa Arp, Ph.D.

Alissa Arp is an internationally recognized scientist with expertise in the physiology of animals living in challenging environments. With eighteen years of classroom, field and laboratory teaching experience, Dr. Arp progressed through the academic ranks at San Francisco State University from researcher and lecturer to full professor with tenure, and was then appointed Director of the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies. After 11 years as Laboratory Director, Dr. Arp held the positions of Vice President for Research and Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at Hawaii Pacific University. She recently joined Southern Oregon University as the first permanent dean of the recently formed College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Arp holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a B.A. in Biology from Sonoma State University, and was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She has participated in 5 deep-sea submersible dives to depths of over 2500 meters, authored numerous original research papers in journals such as Science, Marine Biology and Invertebrate Zoology, and has mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral associates. Her recent appointment as President-elect of the AAAS Pacific Division brings honor and national focus to the campus, as we prepare for the upcoming annual meeting to be held at SOU in June 2010.

Vicki Purslow, Ed.D.